Sea Salt Caramels with Vanilla Bean

I fell in love with making homemade caramels last fall when I found and re-created the Ale and Pretzel Soft Caramels. Those babies are incredibly addicting! I’m not sure how I stumbled upon Shawna’s recipe for these sea salt caramels recently, but I’m so glad that I found them. These are caramels laced with a hefty dose of fleur de sel (or sea salt) and speckled with gorgeous vanilla beans. Caramel has been an acquired taste for me and over the last year or so I have completely fallen in love with the flavor since making candies and sauces at home. I plan on making multiple batches of these once the holidays roll around. Some for munching, and taking a page from Shawna’s book, some for dipping in chocolate!

I buy my fleur de sel (fancy sea salt) at Williams Sonoma. I had been using regular sea salt for a long time, but I can tell you that there is definitely a difference – the fleur de sel is light and flaky. It transforms recipes. Totally magical.

Now, full disclosure – my caramels are a little light and a little flat for two reasons. First, I think I needed to let the mixture go a little longer to the “light caramel color”. I tend to be a bit light-handed when it comes to caramel because it can go from gorgeous to burnt in an instant. But in this situation, it likely needed another couple of minutes to really get the job done. Secondly, and I forgot this from my time spent with caramels last year – if the caramels are a tad soft, you need to wrap them up right after you cut them. Otherwise, they will go sort of flat on you. Case in point above.

All that being said, these are PHENOMENAL. Sweet, salty, caramel, vanilla. They really are incredible. And I highly recommend checking out Shawna’s photos – you will see what these gorgeous candies should truly look like!

And bonus – keep an eye out tomorrow because we’ll be using these candies for another awesome recipe. I couldn’t get enough of the salted caramel goodness!

Directions:

1. Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then lightly butter parchment.

2. Bring cream, butter, vanilla, vanilla beans, the vanilla pod, and sea salt to a boil in a small saucepan, then remove from heat and set aside.

3. Boil the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel.

4. Remove the vanilla pod and carefully stir cream mixture into the caramel (mixture will bubble up) and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers 248 on thermometer. Pour immediately into the prepared baking pan and cool 30 minutes. Sprinkle another pinch or two of salt over the top of the caramel and let sit until completely cooled. Cut into 1-inch pieces (a pizza cutter is perfect for this), and then wrap each piece in a 4-inch square of wax paper, twisting 2 ends to close.

It says to boil and stir until the sugar is dissolved- then it says to boil without stirring? I heard you aren’t supposed to stir at all while caramelizing- is there a magic “stir-safe” time frame while caramelizing?

stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel.

I think what it means is to stir until sugar is dissolved and mixture is boiling, then let it continue to boil without stirring any more, but occasionally swirling the pan (holding the handle and tipping from side to side to make the liquid swirl in the pan). From experience, I think this process takes awhile to reach the right temperature. I tend to be an impatient ‘cooker’ so it seems like forever. But I always say you learn by trial and error. So if it fails the first time you make it, you’ll know (and maybe it’ll still taste yummy enough to eat your failure and then try again!) Good luck! I might try these myself! We make homemade caramel each year for turtles, and end up eating the hardened caramel that’s left over. The sea salt would be a nice touch!

Those that love caramels won’t care that these may be a little light and a little flat as you say. They just care that they taste good and they certainly look like the do. I think it’s awesome that you make your own caramels!

You can definitely get them at any home store like Bed, Bath & Beyond, Williams-Sonoma, Sur La Table, etc. And you could probably also find them at larger grocery stores and places like Target and Wal-Mart.

These look devine. I ordered a gigantic packaged of vanilla beans online and having been trying to think of another way that I could use them. Will try them this weekend. Thanks so much for the recipe.

I’m looking forward to trying these out to add to my Christmas baking. I’m excited to try two of my new flavoured “gourmet” sea salts purchased just for this recipe: Blackberry and Chocolate Kick (chocolate and cayenne)

I just made these the other night and, while they taste absolutely amazing, I had a terrible time getting them unstuck from the wax paper. I used wax paper because I didn’t have any parchment paper on hand. Was this my mistake or is there another trick I should know for getting them not to stick? This was my first time making caramels, so despite this setback I was very impressed with how they turned out! Your recipe reads very well with easy to follow instructions!

Hi Clemens, The only thing I could think of is to make sure you cooked it long enough – ensure it comes to a light golden color first, and then make sure your thermometer is properly calibrated and that it reached 248 degrees.

These looked so good I had to try making them. I followed recipe almost exactly: I omitted the sea salt on top because I did not have good quality sea salt. Mine turned out darker than yours but they are delicious. This was my first ever attempt at making caramels. Thank you for posting the recipe.
I wish I knew how to insert a picture so you could see them.

I made these and sent them to work with my husband and they were a huge hit!! I made one small change, instead of using a vanilla bean I used vanilla bean paste and it still came out beautiful and delicious!!

Hi Della, Most grocery stores sell vanilla beans, and you can always order them online from places like Amazon, Penzeys or Beanilla. If you are going to substitute vanilla extract, 1 vanilla bean = 2.5 teaspoons of extract. The extract should be stirred in at the very end, however.

I saw a pbs episode of Victory Garden covering Omaha, Nebraska. End of show is the same caramel recipe and she got it from her Grandmother. No vanilla bean but extract. Salt amt was I believe less & general sea salt. She said they sold better than her veggies & food from her farm at the Farmers market. She’s been making them ever since. Thanks for all the caramel recipes. I like caramel more than chocolate, but I favor white chocolate over milk and dark.

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welcome to brown eyed baker!

Hello and welcome to this delicious little corner of the web! Here you'll find approachable recipes for desserts, comfort foods and easy dinners.

I reside in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with my husband, our two sons, and Golden Retriever.